Berkan Delareyna

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Foisie Business School

“A determined, hardworking human chasing my dreams and trying to make my family proud.”

Fun fact about yourself: My family origin is from 3 separate countries: Turkey, Israel and Spain.

Hometown: Istanbul, Turkey

High School: Hisar School

Major: Industrial Engineering

Minor: N/A

Favorite Business Course: Achieving Effective Operations (BUS 3020)

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:

• WPI’s Dean’s List (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020)
• Six Sigma Green Belt Certification (March 2019)
• Lean Green Belt Certification (November, December 2018)
• Alpha Pi Mu, Industrial Engineering Honor Society (May 2020- Present): Leadership Roles: President
• Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
  • Leadership Roles: Assistant Historian
  • Community Work: Helped organize TKE week where we take donations 24/7 for a whole week for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital and participated twice in the St. Jude run.
• Turkish Student Association: Leadership Roles: Vice President (2019-Present)
• Club Soccer

Where have you interned during your college career?                                                             

• Industrial Engineer Intern at Aquatec Water Systems Inc. (California, United States)
• Production Planning Intern at Karbosan Zımpara Taşı San. A.Ş. (Istanbul, Turkey)
• Data Analyst Intern at Erkam Ofis Stationery Company (Istanbul, Turkey)

Where will you be working after graduation? Undecided

What company do you admire most? The company that I admire the most is Apple. I have been following Apple since the first iPhone came out and closely watched their success. They have quickly adapted to the 21st century and, in my opinion, had the greatest innovations so far. Almost all of their products are best sellers in their own markets, and they have joined numerous markets after their success in each market. Additionally, their market share is extremely high for all the markets that they are in and they have no intention of stopping anytime soon. All these reasons are just some of many reasons that I admire Apple the most.

Who is your favorite professor? This is a tough question. I have learned a lot from all the professors that I had the chance to work with. If I had to choose one of those, I think it would be Professor Andrew C. Trapp because he pushed me to my limits. I had the chance to take a senior level course from him as a sophomore and I learned so much in that class. Professor Trapp was always there to support me and tried his best to be open with questions while I went to his office constantly as I was struggling with the class at the beginning. Without his mentorship, I would definitely not become the person I am now, and I am grateful for all of his contributions for my life.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business?The biggest lesson I gained from studying business was to not just rely on concepts because they are not the solution  – they guide you to the solution. I was able to use the concepts I learned throughout my time as an intern in multiple companies but when I was on the field, it was such a different environment than what I had expected. You try to apply the concepts you learn but real life is much more complicated than what you think. Therefore, my time as an intern was an amazing life experience for me to understand the expectations from an industrial engineer in a company.

What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? The most important part of a business is communication between the employees and departments. My advice for a student looking to major in a business-related field would be to always listen other ideas as each employee has a different perspective. Don’t expect everyone to be on the same page as you; people might even oppose your idea. Just make sure to understand what their perspective is.

What has surprised you most about majoring in business?The most surprising aspect of my time as a student majoring in business was to realize that my classroom was a reflection of an actual organization. Every class had real life example cases to understand a concept and I wasn’t expecting to see this many real-life examples. As a high school student, you don’t really think about how you will use something you learn in a class after graduation. Therefore, it was a completely new aspect for me to see that everything I learn applies to a scenario in an organization.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? If I had the chance to go back and start over, I would do more research on companies and markets before starting my college career. It would have been much more beneficial to learn about companies and their strategies and to see how the concepts I would learn assist to decide on those strategies.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I think I am most proud of becoming the president of the Industrial Engineering Honor Society. I have always strived to be a successful student and I believe that this achievement was how my school recognized my efforts. I am very grateful that I had the chance to become the president of an Honor Society and thank everyone who played a part in me getting this position.

Which classmate do you most admire? If I had to choose a single classmate, this would be Enzo Giglio De Azevedo. He is a very successful but also a socially active student. I admire his life balance of work and social life. I think keeping this balance is extremely important for a person’s health and Enzo is very good at maintaining this balance. I can only wish I was as good as him in terms of balancing my own life. Additionally, he is one of the best friends that anyone could ask for. He is always there whenever you need someone to talk to and he listens no matter what you talk about. It is hard to find this type of friendship when you just meet someone at the beginning of your college experience.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? There are many candidates for the answer to this question: my mother, my father, any of my friends, or any of my teachers in either high school or college. However, the person I would most want to thank for my success is my older brother, Serhan Delareyna. He has supported me throughout my life both as an excellent person to look up to and also with his advices. I have learned so many things from just observing his style of living. My determined and hard-working personality is a direct reflection of this observation. He has always strived to push me to my limits, believing that I had a lot of potential to become even more successful than him. I don’t think I am there yet but if I can say that I am on my journey for that, it is because of his support.  

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

• My top item on my professional bucket list is to become the CEO of a successful company in the future. I believe I have already learned a lot about managing and delegating others. If I can achieve my goal of becoming a CEO for a successful company, it will be my peak point of my professional career.
• My second top item on my professional bucket list is to obtain a good position in a worldwide known company and work there at least for 5 years. I believe this will be an amazing experience for my professional career and will also get me the reputation I would need to climb up the steps towards my top item.

What are your hobbies? My hobbies include playing soccer, playing classical guitar, traveling, body workout, preparing cocktails and listening to music.

What made Berkan such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2021?

“I first met Berkan as an Industrial Engineering (IE) student in my senior level 4420 optimization course. While just a sophomore, he consistently showed solid technical capabilities and ended up with one of the stronger performances in the class of 28 students. He and his team designed a solid solution to optimize the assignment of reviewers to projects for Project Presentation Day at WPI according to compatibility. Berkan takes his studies very seriously, as evident by his nearly perfect GPA, and he holds certifications in Lean and Six Sigma reflecting his dedication to the field of operations and industrial engineering. All the while, Berkan is concurrently pursuing his MS in Operations Analytics and Management, and is on track to earn both degrees in the same time as just his undergraduate degree.

Much more than academic performance, though, Berkan is simply a good person. He is a gentleman and asks for advice. I recall enjoyable conversations about career paths in IE, using IE to better society, and possible MQP (senior design project) topics. That’s a mark of maturity from undergraduate students that, while uncommon, is welcome. Last but not least, Berkan has strong leadership abilities; he presently serves as President of the IE Honor Society, Alpha Pi Mu. Given our past conversations and his trajectory, I believe Berkan is set for great things in his future.”

Andrew Trapp, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Operations and Industrial Engineering
Foisie Business School
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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